Food Waste – Support to Stakeholders 2024-2025

Opened

Programme Category

EU Competitive Programmes

Programme Name

Single Market Programme (SMP) (2021-2027)

Programme Description

The Single Market Programme (SMP) covers the single market, competitiveness of enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises, the area of plants, animals, food and feed, and European statistics. Specifically, the programme brings together aspects in order to streamline, exploit synergies and provide a better flexible, transparent, simplified and agile framework to finance activities aiming at a well-functioning sustainable internal market.

Programme Details

Identifier Code

SMP-FOOD-2024-FW-STAKEHOLDERS-PJ

Call

Food Waste – Support to Stakeholders 2024-2025

Summary

The objective of this call for proposals is to support EU stakeholders (single or multi – stakeholders) in taking actions to address consumer food waste (both in- and out- of-home), covering types of actions such as behavioural change interventions, education and training, the elaboration and implementation of food waste prevention guidelines, food waste monitoring programs, awareness raising campaigns and communication materials, and development of new business models.
Actions out-of – home could, for example, take place in schools, canteens, restaurants and cafeterias.

Detailed Call Description

This call for proposals implements one of the objectives in the food area within the Single Market Programme, aiming to support sustainable food production and consumption by preventing and reducing food waste, including through information sharing and awareness raising activities.

Proposals shall describe how the Target-Measure-Act approach is applied in the 4 steps below:

  • carrying out an initial food waste diagnosis to understand the extent of the issue and to identify the “hotspots” needing specific action (e.g., target audiences, situations where food waste arises). This could be based on a previously made diagnosis. This process should be clearly described in the proposal.
  • setting food waste reduction targets with reference to a specific baseline. Project proposals should define SMART objectives and specific KPIs (ideally including reduction of food waste and/or other indicators such as changes in awareness and/or attitudes, results indicators such as outreach achieved etc.) to be utilised in monitoring progress made.
  • developing and implementing actions to tackle the hotspots identified during the initial food waste diagnosis.
  • carrying out a final evaluation at the end of the project, in order to understand the results achieved by implementing the actions, and progress made towards the targets and KPIs set. The results of the evaluation should be publicly available and accessible for key stakeholders (see Expected impacts section for further information). Information on projections concerning the food waste reduction trend in the long term, or for how long the action(s) proposed by the project is/are expected to bring food waste reductions, is welcome.

A wide range of activities are eligible to be supported by the grants offered under this call for proposals, provided that they can be linked to the above objective. The grants would cover consumer food waste prevention interventions such as (non-exhaustive list):

  • behavioural change interventions (e.g. nudges to prevent food waste at consumer level such as specific tools and prompts for households and in food services, coaching programmes, etc.);
  • education and training (e.g. school programmes, staff training and actions in school canteens); – awareness raising campaigns (e.g. local, regional or national scale); – measurement and reporting tools and solutions for preventing food waste at consumption level (e.g. mobile applications and other monitoring tools beyond selfreporting);
  • studies, data collection and experimental actions widening the evidence base for consumer food waste prevention interventions (e.g. audience segmentation studies to better tailor and target actions).

Actions proposed should go beyond the provision of information to consumers and focus on supporting consumer behavioural change to reduce food waste. Initiatives should be evidence-based, using an appropriate behavioural change model wherever possible. They may combine awareness raising together with practical tips and tools to help consumers reduce food waste.

Call Total Budget

€4.000.000

Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan

The costs will be reimbursed at the funding rate of 50%.

Μaximum grant amount: between €100.000 and €300.000 per project

Thematic Categories

  • Agriculture - Food
  • Industry
  • Other Services
  • Research, Technological Development and Innovation

Eligibility for Participation

  • Businesses
  • Educational Institutions
  • Farmers Unions
  • Farmers, Agriculturalists
  • International Organisations
  • Legal Entities
  • Local Authorities
  • NGOs
  • Non Profit Organisations
  • Other Beneficiaries
  • Private Bodies
  • Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
  • State-owned Enterprises

Eligibility For Participation Notes

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be from an eligible country, i.e.:
    • EU Member State (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs).

This call targets both single stakeholders and multi-stakeholder collaborations or partnerships across the food supply chain including key actors such as farmers, manufacturers, retailers, food services as well as researchers, NGOs and public entities (e.g. local, regional or national authorities, educational establishments etc.).

Call Opening Date

30/05/2024

Call Closing Date

25/09/2024

EU Contact Point

For help related to this call, please contact: HADEA-FOOD-GRANTS@ec.europa.eu